Month: July 2017

Making Johnny Depp’s Swords

See the sword Captain Barbossa is holding in this picture?

Well, that is one of many that our Blueprint 4D team created for Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush and many other Hollywood stars went into movie battle on the high seas holding our sword creations.

CNC machined by the team, here are a few photos of the swords in the Blueprint 4D workshop:

We always say Blueprint 4D is at the ‘cutting edge’ of model making. And for this project we most definitely were! Ain’t that the ‘sworded’ truth!

Peg Leg Creation for Pirate of the Carribean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

Our team were lucky enough to be involved in making a number of props for Johnny Depp and his friends for Pirate of the Carribean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

We loved making everything from Geoffrey Rush’s Peg Leg, to Johnny Depp’s sword to giant boat props.

The most intricate prop was most definitely Captain Barbossa’s peg leg, to be worn by Geoffrey Rush.

So how did we make the peg leg?

First of all we had to CNC machine various very ornate parts.

These were then added to a machined peg leg shape by our skilled team.  It was essential to create a seamless finish to the leg, so that despite it being made of numerous parts,  it presented as one solid piece.

The leg was then primed ready to be turned into the gold coloured leg that was used on set.

We’re sure Captain Barbossa was very ‘hoppy’ with the final product!

Creating a 3D Marble Run Map for an ATO TV Advert

Can tax ever be fun? Or interesting?

Well yes, if it involves our team creating a huge marble run for the Australian Tax Office’s new advert campaign!

Blueprint 4D was recently commissioned to create a 3D marble run above a topographical map of Australia for the Australian Treasury ‘Earned here, taxed here’ campaign, raising awareness of Diverted Profits Tax.

It was such a fun project for the team to work on! I mean who doesn’t love a good marble run?!

To check out the advert CLICK HERE

Want to know how we made this?

We had just 3 weeks to design and create the marble run map, based on some direction from the creative team involved.

This is what we came up with to get the project going – a marble run CAD rendering for client approval. Designing an attractive track layout proved to be time consuming but was the basis of a beautiful hand-crafted model.

Next we drew the tracks  in CAD. To ensure the flow of marbles in the correct direction we spent time ensuring the gradients were correct. We can work a lot of miracles here at Blueprint 4D, but we can’t alter gravity!

You can see a mechanism in this track which diverts a marble in or out of Australia. These marbles symbolised Australian tax dollars. We had to create movement which showed how the new tax will stop dollars moving out of Australia, as they have done previously.

And here you can see the tracks drawn in CAD showing the trap door mechanism. Again, this showcased tax dollars being trapped inside Australia, where they belong.

One of our favourite parts of the project was the iris! The iris, at the centre of the map, can be seen here drawn in CAD. This fun piece of the map opens and lights up as marbles approach.

Once our design was all drawn up, it was time to start CNC machining. The tracks were all CNC machined from beech hardwood as it is tightly grained and machines well. To ensure the efficient use of materials, we maximised the number of track pieces per sheet of wood by laying them out in very specific pattern form.

These tracks were them pieced together on top of a topographical map of Australia CNC machined in AA grade marine plywood. Here are the CNC machined tracks, starting to be assembled onto the map. You can see the piece is starting to take shape now!

Once all the tracks were in place, it was onto the staining and painting to give the correct visual look for the piece. Here you can see the map coming together nicely with various stains and painted finishes.

And here you can see the completed set showing the mechanism we created for introducing marbles onto the map. You can also see our signs communicating the advert messaging.  All signs were CNC machined on a lathe in aluminium specifically for this piece.

Now our marble run map was ready to be shot for the advert. The Blueprint 4D team were positioned on set to help with the mechanics. A small screen was set up underneath the set showing real time footage enabling us to make the mechanisms work as marbles approached.

Real time footage of the set in action!

Here you can see stop motion for the signage. Each sign grew in 15 stages as marbles approached.

This was our view of a mechanism from underneath the set.

Filming the advert with a kuka robotic arm

On set adjustments

The iris alight!

If you didn’t see it already, CLICK HERE  for another link to the advert in all its glory. Another fantastic project delivered by Blueprint 4D!